On Wednesday, February 27, 2013, Debo P. Adegbile of the NAACP Legal and Educational Defense Fund, Inc. (LDF) presented oral argument on behalf of defendant-intervenors in the Supreme Court in Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, one of the most important civil rights cases in a generation.

SCOTUS Dispatch: 'Hush Fell' Over Courtroom

Your Take: A civil rights lawyer's view of the scene as the high court heard a voting-rights case.

Sherrilyn Ifill, LDF's Director-Counsel, appears on PBS NewsHour with host Judy Woodruff, and explains that Section 5, the "preclearance" section and heart of the Voting Rights Act, remains vital today. Section 5 protects the rights of voters of color who live in places with the worst and most persistent history of voting discrimination.